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Fiction | White Plastic Chair | The Airgonaut

First published at The Airgonaut, 1 October 2016, and to link to the story click here.

This story, a micro-fiction, is an ekphrastic (a picture prompt) that my weekly writers workshop had to work with last February. The creator of the prompt was my friend and flash guru, Paul Beckman.

Here is Beckman’s photo, a snapshot he took on a vacation a few years ago:

Photo credit: Paul Beckman

I know that the white plastic chair wasn’t the subject of the photo, but aren’t they interesting? Aren’t they levelers? Don’t they need a voice?

I did a little research, and was amazed by how many descriptions of their conception, design, manufacture, life cycle, roles in celebrations became biblical metaphors. When I saw that the thickness of the plastic, measured with calipers, was 3/16th of an inch, I was like hotcha! John 3:16.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

I’m so grateful to the editor of The Airgonaut, Sheldon Lee Compton, for selecting this work for inclusion in this issue of his journal. I look around the table of contents and it is not lost on me that I am in such, such fine company.

I hope you find yourself sitting on a mass-produced chair one day, and enjoy thinking about it, incepting all the way back the supply chain, all the way to when it was just an idea.

By the way, the featured photo for this blog post, the towels and hair dryer, are also interesting to me. They also kind of dumbly participate in our lives. These objects reside in the bathroom of the only motel that’s actually on the beach in L.A.: The Sea Sprite. That’s your hot tip of the day, dear reader.

Oho! Hot tip #2. OF NOTE: Other writers I know have based stories on Beckman’s same photo. After you’re through reading The Airgonaut’s amazing October 2016 issue, check out these stories that were also prompted from same photo as mine.

Yes — in the middle of the Theban Trilogy for half the day, and Perks of Being a Wallflower for the other. Great way to spend the day! Brandon I’ll have to walk down memory lane to remember that recommendation. Your work is very visceral, with very specific details. <3

The Airgonaut is marvelous. The EIC is Sheldon Lee Compton, a formidable writer himself. You should definitely rework it and give them a try. I think Jellyfish Review, EIC Christopher James, might also like your voice. And confidence only comes with facing your fears and submitting. Then, once you’ve submitted, keep writing! Rinse and repeat.

A. E. Weisgerber is a teacher, editor, and hybrid writer from Orange, New Jersey. Awarded first place for features from the Society of Professional Journalists, she is a Reynolds Journalism Fellow, a 2018 Chesapeake Writer, and 2017’s Frost Place Scholar. Recent items in 3:AM, DIAGRAM, The Alaska Star, Yemassee, SmokeLong Quarterly, and Gravel Mag. Her flash fiction appears in many international anthologies. She is an Associate Series Editor for Wigleaf’s Top 50, and is currently writing her first novel about a terrible family that finally gets something right. @aeweisgerber anneweisgerber.com